The Abia State Government-led by Governor Theodore Orji, without equivocation, sees lies as the best policy to replace good governance with, in the state. The government has become an exceptionally good liar.
While the Civil Servants in the state are crying over non-payment of their salaries, Orji and his boys are selling lies in the media, contrary to that effect. And we know that any lie that has been often repeated becomes truth to the uninformed.
How could Orji say that he does not owe civil servants salaries, when the teachers’ section is lamenting the asymmetrical and chaotic payment of their salaries by the Abia State Government? (See Premium Times March 9, 2013).
What would Nigerians make of a government that pays salary at will, against the norms and ethos of paying workers salary in a specified government? Governor Orji-led government of Abia State can be said is treacherous and a hoodwinker of the masses.
Teachers in Abia State reportedly cried: “Whenever they owe us for three months, on the fourth month, they will pay one month’s salary, to prevent us from going on strike…. Even the long time approved minimum wage has accumulated as we are yet to receive the salaries from before the approval…. Abia State teachers have been neglected. Issues concerning salaries, leave allowances, are not mentioned anymore…. The last time I was paid was in February, that was when I was paid my November salary and since then we’ve been waiting for our December salary…. When we are even promoted, our new salaries are usually not implemented.”
But the garrulous Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Ugochukwu Emezue would always describe such glaring fact as false claims, just to protect his job.
Like Emezue is like every other aide that Governor Orji has; are they not embedded in the craftsmanship of telling lies? In like manner, the Abia State Commissioner for Finance, Sam Onuigbo, who once served as Commissioner for Land; when he fielded questions from journalists during the Good Governance Media Tour of Abia State (See Champion Monday, 18 March 2013), corroborated Emezue’s statement that the government that pays their salaries is a saint.
All the aides are just self-seeking persons who are granting interviews in the media so that they could buy the already battered heart of their paymaster. But where they always fail is that they would present to media men scorecard done by individuals who are not residents of Abia. Can you imagine that! They would also present scorecard of the Governor by people who are members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and members of this government.
When Onuigbo was asked in that interview if Gov. Orji-led government owes workers salary, what would one expect from him? He quickly or swiftly said: “No, we don’t. This is something that is interesting and I am happy that you asked this question. We don’t owe salaries…”
He joined the mendacity ship again, adding, “We are doing this because we want to finish with the issues of ghost workers in this state, we are also working on data enumeration; we are doing these things to ensure that people don’t have these stories to tell. These things (payment of salaries) will be processed electronically and that way, nobody will say that he did not process one paper or the other.” Hmmmmmmmmm!
That statement was one of the bountiful villain tactics of this government. Somebody would say that Orji keeps the money of the workers in the bank for interest-yielding sake after some months. No one knows how true this is! But Orji forgot to realise the pains the families of these workers might have passed through before their salaries were paid them ones in a ‘decade’.
Is it not very dangerous that the Abia State Government under Governor Orji can lie with impunity? The government has used Army to surrender any opposing group in the state, not that the army personnel are in swing action of protecting the state from crimes. No!
The generation of government in Abia State is an immoral one. And this is the reason Abia people have vowed that they will not fold their hands in 2015 for Theodore Orji to call any shots. The question is that if Orji with over N7 billion incomes from the Federation Account, which are outside internally generated revenue, cannot pay Civil Servants in the state, what has he been doing with money.
The teachers’ plight is even an understatement. What would you say of Abia State pensioners? Death gratuity is even a story for another day in that state.
It was expected that the Governor of Abia State would give the people their destiny in their hands, but have resolved to give them destruction in their hands. Since the beginning of the administration of Governor Theodore Orji he has never relented in telling one fabrication to another.
But one Immanuel Kant warns people like Governor Theodore Orji who like to concoct thus: “By a lie, a man annihilates his dignity as a man.”
Odimegwu Onwumere, Poet/Author, wrote in from Rivers State. Email: apoet_25@yahoo.com
